Blood transfusions and DNA?
When you have a blood transfusion, does the DNA of the other person gets transferred as in good health? And if you took a blood test soon after, would there be a chance of the other person's DNA showing up instead?
Answers:
First item to remember - mature red blood cells have no nucleus and no DNA and do not reproduce themselves, and the white blood cell which DO have DNA are usually removed by centrifuging the bloood before it is made available. WHOLE blood transfusion or direct person to being transfusion would however transfer white cells. But, once the DNA of these cells is broken down when the cell themselves die and are recycled, the DNA from transfused blood might then only be detectable by a blood DNA test soon thereafter, but unlikely beyond the conventional lifetime of such cells. However the DNA tests take DNA from multiple cell so it is very likely that both DNA sources would show up; the mix might cause confusion unless specific test targeting particular DNA sequences are used. Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_cell as link to adjectives three cell types
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Most transfusions to not transfer DNA. The common products transferred are platelets and red blood cell, neither of which contain DNA.
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Answers:
First item to remember - mature red blood cells have no nucleus and no DNA and do not reproduce themselves, and the white blood cell which DO have DNA are usually removed by centrifuging the bloood before it is made available. WHOLE blood transfusion or direct person to being transfusion would however transfer white cells. But, once the DNA of these cells is broken down when the cell themselves die and are recycled, the DNA from transfused blood might then only be detectable by a blood DNA test soon thereafter, but unlikely beyond the conventional lifetime of such cells. However the DNA tests take DNA from multiple cell so it is very likely that both DNA sources would show up; the mix might cause confusion unless specific test targeting particular DNA sequences are used. Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_cell as link to adjectives three cell types
There is a full discussion of precisely this question here:
http://www.wisegeek.com/can-getting-a-bl…
Most transfusions to not transfer DNA. The common products transferred are platelets and red blood cell, neither of which contain DNA.
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